S2 A HISTORY OF 



ers have got an art for counterfeiting the cry of the owl exactly ; and 

 having before limed the branches of a hedge, they sit unseen -and give 

 the call. At this all the little birds flock to the place where they ex- 

 pect to find their well-known enemy ; but instead of finding their stu- 

 pid antagonist, they are stuck fast to the hedge themselves. This 

 sport must be put in practice an hour before night-fall, in order to be 

 successful ; for if it is put off till later, those birds which but a few 

 minutes sooner came to provoke their enemy, will then fly from hii* 

 with as much terror as they just before showed insolence. 



It is not unpleasant to see one stupid bird made in some sort a de- 

 coy to deceive another. The great horned owl is sometimes mad* 

 use of for this purpose, to lure the kite when falconers desire to catch 

 him for the purposes of training the falcon. Upon this occasion they 

 clap the tail of a fox to the great owl, to render his figure extraordi- 

 nary, in which trim he sails slowly along, flying low, which is his usua} 

 manner. The kite, either curious to observe this odd kind of animal, 

 or perhaps inquisitive to see whether it may not be proper for food, 

 flies after, and comes nearer and nearer. In this manner he con- 

 tinues to hover, and sometimes to descend, till the falconer setting a 

 strong-winged hawk against him, seizes him for the purpose of train- 

 ing his young ones at home. 



The usual place where the great horned owl breeds is in the cavern 

 of a rock, the hollow of a tree, or the turret of some ruined castle. 

 Its nest is near three feet in diameter, and composed of sticks bound 

 together by the fibrous roots of trees, and lined with leaves on the in- 

 side. It lays about three eggs, which are larger than those of a hen, 

 and of a colour somewhat resembling the bird itself. The young ones 

 are very voracious, aud the parents not less expert at satisfying the 

 call of hunger. The lesser owl of this kind never makes a nest for 

 iteelf, but always takes up with the old nest of some other bird, which 

 it has often been forced to abandon. It lays four or five eggs, and the 

 young are all white at first, but change colour in about a fortnight. 

 The other owls in general build near the place where they chiefly 

 prey ; that which feeds upon birds in some neighbouring grove ; that 

 which preys chiefly upon mice, near some farmer's yard, where the 

 proprietor of the place takes care to give it perfect security. In fact, 

 whatever mischief one species of owl may do in the woods, the barri- 

 owl makes a sufficient recompense for, by being equally active in de- 

 stroying mice nearer home ; so that a single owl is said to be more 

 serviceable than half a dozen cats in ridding the barn of its domestic 

 vermin. " In the year 1580," says an old writer, " at Hallontide, an 

 army of mice so overrun the marshes near Southminster, that they eat 

 up the grass to the very roots. But at length a great number of 

 strange painted owls came and devoured all the mice. The like hap- 

 pened again in Essex about sixty years after." 



To conclude our account of these birds, they are all very shy of 

 man, and extremely indocile and difficult to be tamed. The white 

 owl in particular, as Mr. Buffon asserts, cannot be made to live in 

 captivity ; I suppose he means if it be taken when old. " They live,' 

 says he, " ten or twelve days in the aviary where they are shut up ; 

 but they refuse all kind of nourishment, and at last die for hunge- 



